Surveyors measure land, airspace, and water, and explain what it looks like and how much there is for legal records.

The next year, at age 17, Washington was appointed the official surveyor of Culpeper County. By the time he was 21, he owned more than 1,500 acres of land, according to American Studies department at UVA.

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John Adams was a schoolmaster

After graduating from a class of 24 students, Adams took his first job as as a schoolmaster in Worcester, Massachusetts, according to the University of Groningen's biography of the second US president.

Thomas Jefferson was a lawyer

Before he became the third president of the US, Jefferson handled 900 matters while specializing in land cases as a lawyer in the General Court in Williamsburg, Virginia, according to Encyclopedia Virginia.

Influenced by his political ideology, Jefferson served clients from all classes. As he wrote in his "Autobiography" in 1821, he wanted to create a "system by which every fibre would be eradicated of ancient or future aristocracy; and a foundation laid for a government truly republican."

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Andrew Jackson was a courier during the Revolution

The turbulent, controversial seventh president of the US was actually the last head of state to serve in the Revolutionary War. Andrew Jackson joined the fighting at the age of thirteen and served as a courier, according to a report from CNN.

His position with the local militia was informal, but that didn't stop the British from imprisoning the teenager, along with his brother Robert. Some accounts say that when Jackson refused to clean an officer's boots, the enemy soldier slashed his face with a sword, leaving a permanent scar.

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Abraham Lincoln worked as a clerk in a general store

Lincoln's first job was as a clerk in a general store in New Salem, Illinois, according to Miller Center.

This may seem like a menial job, but it actually worked to Lincoln's advantage. The store acted as an unofficial town meeting spot. Lincoln, who would later become the 16th president of the US, was able to build relationships with nearly everyone in town.

He quickly became known as a friendly and intelligent man around town and six months later he launched his first political campaign for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.

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Andrew Johnson was an apprentice tailor for his mom

Johnson — who was vice president at the time of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, and became the country's 17th president as a result — started off as an apprentice tailor for his mother while he was still a teen, according to CNN. Later, he moved up to a tailoring position in South Carolina and Tennessee.

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James Garfield tended to mules

James Garfield's tenure as the 20th president of the US was cut short by an assassin's bullet in 1881. His presidency was so brief that most historians exclude him from presidential rankings.

However, there was a time when Garfield's career was on the rise. According to the "Erie Canal" by Ralph Andrist, the "Ohio farm boy" got his start working for his cousin who owned a canal boat. Garfield made $8 a month driving the boat's mules.

Lyndon B. Johnson worked as a shoe shiner and a goat herder

When Johnson was just 9, he shined shoes during summer vacation for extra pocket change and later used these skills to buff shoes in high school, as well, according to The Week. Later, the 36th president of the US worked as a goat herder on his uncle's farm.

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Richard Nixon worked as a chicken plucker and ran a game booth

Charles Tasnadi/AP

While visiting family in Prescott, Arizona, in 1928 and 1929, Nixon — the 37th president of the US — plucked and dressed chickens for a local butcher, according to The Week. Later, he worked a "Wheel of Fortune" gaming booth at the Slippery Gulch carnival and said it was his favorite job.

Bill Clinton was a grocer and a comic book salesman

At age 13, Clinton started working as a grocer in Arkansas, according to Convenience Store News. Ever the businessman, he persuaded his boss to let him sell comic books at the store, too, and was able to rake in an extra $100 for his tenacity.

In 1993, Clinton became the 42nd US president.

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George W. Bush was a landman in the oil industry

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

After graduating with his MBA from Harvard, George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the US, took a job as a landman for an oil company, in which he scouted potential sites to drill for oil, according to the Miller Center

It wasn't glamourous, according to The Week: "It was hard, hot work," he said. "I unloaded enough of those heavy mud sacks to know that was not what I wanted to do with my life."

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Barack Obama was an ice cream scooper

REUTERS/Jason Reed

Life used to be a lot simpler for the 44th president of the US.

President Obama told New York Magazine that he used to be an ice cream scooper for a Honolulu Baskin-Robbins. But not every job is as easy as it seems. "Chocolate ice cream gets real hard," he told the magazine. "Your wrists hurt."